I decided there would be no harm in making a story that elaborated on the whole "they destroyed my apartment" line from my story Teen Titans Tower Alive, so this is kinda of a prequel. Sorry if it's bad or something, I feel like Nix is headed towards Mary Sue territory in this story, so I promise in all the other stories I put her in she'll be less Mary Sue-ish.
Disclaimer: I does not own Teen Titans! :(
It was a normal day in Jump city…well normal as it can get with a villain running loose. Yes indeed, the team was on their third mission of the day. First Slade, then Dr. Light, now Cheshire. Robin threw some bird-a-rangs at the girl, but she dodged them with ease.
Cyborg tried firing a shot from his laser cannon arm at her, but she easily jumped out of the way of that. The shot almost hit Beast Boy, but Raven arrived just in time to put up a shield with her power.
A short walk away from where this fight was going on, a 17 year old brunette girl was walking home from the grocery store, completely unaware of the chaos going on down the street, dangerously close to her apartment. It was such as nice apartment too, it had a great view of the water and it was a short walk from everywhere she needed to go.
"Look out!" The girl was pulled from her thoughts when she heard the yell of the titan's leader Robin. Cheshire was running in her direction and Starfire had let loose a starbolt that was not only dangerously close to hitting Cheshire, but also dangerously close to hitting herself. Without thinking, the girl threw up her arms in defense.
The titans looked away; they weren't sure what the scene was going to look like once the starbolt hit that area. They heard it collide with something, and they heard someone scream. When they looked back what they saw shocked them. The girl who had less than a second ago been carrying her groceries, was now covered by an ice shield, and Cheshire was unconscious in front of the shield. The starbolt had ricocheted off of the shield and hit an apartment in the apartment complex next to them.
"Is Aqualad around here?" Beast Boy wondered out loud as Robin ran forward to collect the unconscious villain.
The girl opened her blue eyes and looked around; she hadn't realized she'd been holding them closed as tight as she did until she opened them. She put her hands down, the ice shield melted and the water formed a giant puddle, not having a way to return to the large body of water she'd borrowed it from.
"No Beast Boy…I think she made the shield." Raven said sounding as shocked as she could for using monotone.
"Um excuse me friend, are you okay?" Starfire asked flying up to the girl.
The girl looked herself over, then looked down at her soaked groceries, and then proceeded to ring out her now extremely wet hair. 'Heh, it's been awhile since I've used my powers, figures I'd get myself wet instead of having the water fall around me.' She thought. Out loud she said. "I-I think I'm fine." She looked at the five heroes and the unconscious villain in front of her, and then her eyes caught the sight of the destroyed apartment in the building next to them. It wasn't just any apartment, it was her apartment.
"Um…mind telling us how you did that?" Robin asked as he handed Cheshire over to the police.
"My apartment…" Was all the girl could say, the others stared at her. Then one by one they all looked over at the destroyed apartment and back to her.
"Was that your apartment?" Cyborg asked.
"Tough luck dude." Beast Boy said.
"I am so sorry." Starfire said.
"C'mon, let's get you back to Titans Tower and get you dried off, we can figure out what to do from there." Robin said.
The girl stared blankly at them, Titans Tower, as in the tower out in the middle of the water near Jump city, the tower where the city's protectors lived, she was being taken there. She nodded absently and got into the T-car with the rest of the heroes.
The ride was awkward and quiet. Somehow they'd managed to fit six people inside the T-car, it was a little cramped but it worked. Finally one titan grew tired of the silence.
"So…what's your name?" Cyborg asked as he looked at the girl in his rearview mirror. The girl looked like someone had just kidnapped her puppy. She didn't say anything for a bit until finally-
"Nixie…my name is Nixie Halbach, but I go by Nix." She grabbed some of her hair and looked very interested as it when from pin straight like it had been before the incident, to ridiculously curly. She sighed inwardly and though about how she could straighten it except for one thing, her straightener had been in her apartment. 'Damn.'
"So…Nixie…that's an interesting name." Beast Boy tried to continue the conversation Cyborg had started.
"It's German…mom always had a thing for out of the ordinary names." She mumbled the last part.
Both Cyborg and Beast Boy were now uncomfortable with how quiet and unsocial the girl was being, sure Raven could be just as quiet and unsocial, but at least she wasn't acting depressed the entire time.
"So…mind telling us how you did that shield thing?" Robin asked carefully, hoping he'd get the answer he'd been looking for back by the apartments.
"I'm a hydrokinetic." She stated simply, not once looking up at anyone in the car.
"Hydroki-whata?" Beast Boy asked.
"It means she can control the water Beast Boy." Raven for the first time since the fight had ended. "Like how Terra was a geokinetic."
"Terra wasn't a geokinetic, she could control rocks!" Beast Boy shot back.
"That's what geokinesis means." Raven said rolling her eyes as she spoke.
Nix giggled a little at the tiny fight the two were having. 'Heh, a lover's spat. They're like an old married couple.'
When the six of them got to the tower, they all sat down in the common room.
"So…you're a hydrokinetic?" Robin asked again.
Nix simply nodded, not sure where he was going with this.
"Prove it." Robin stated.
"Bu-wha…didn't I do that when I did the ice shield?" Nix was shocked, no one who had seen her use her powers before ever actually questioned her ability.
"I'm just double checking." Robin walked over to the sink and filled a glass with water, he brought it back over to the couch where Nix was seated and placed it on the floor in front of her.
Nix stared at the glass blankly then looked up at Robin. "I don't-"
"Manipulate the water in the glass." Robin commanded.
Nix stared at the water in the glass and concentrated. Finally she manipulated part of the water to come out of the glass in the form of a small bubble. First she manipulated it into the shape of a T, then she froze it, after a few seconds she unfroze it and boiled it. Finally she moved it up to her mouth and swallowed the water. She pulled more water from the glass and mixed it with some water particles in the air, manipulating it into the shape of a sword. She didn't freeze the sword but she did grab onto the handle and slammed it on the ground, causing the water to break apart and fall back into the now overflowing glass. "Uh-um I can do more but um-"
"No you've proved your powers are real." Robin said as he looked down and frowned at the now partially wet floor.
Nix looked down and the floor too and clenched her fist to make the water on the carpet boil till it evaporated.
Starfire applauded Nix's ability while Beast Boy and Cyborg looked amused. Raven just sat there with her usual expression on her face not saying anything.
"Nix…who did you live with in your apartment?" Robin asked after she'd dried the carpet.
"Oh…no one actually." She replied. Then a thought suddenly hit her. 'Crap, I didn't live with anyone; I've got nowhere to go. I'm doomed!'
Robin nodded. "Nix can you wait here? I need to talk to the others about something."
Nix nodded thinking, 'Not like I've got anywhere else to go now.'
Robin took the other four titans out into the hallway. "Alright team, we're partially at fault for her destroyed apartment, she has powers and I think she has fighting potential. Maybe we should let her stay here and join the team?"
"I don't know Robin." Raven spoke up. "The last person we let join the team, specifically this team, was Terra, and that didn't end so well."
"Raven has a point y'all, we barely know this girl, I mean sure we did destroy her apartment, but she might have family around here that she could move in with." Cyborg said. "Plus with the Brotherhood of Evil gone, it's not like we have to watch out for her, she should be fine."
"But what if she doesn't have family around here, what if we have made her homeless and Slade decides to try to make her his new apprentice? That would be most horrible." Starfire said.
Beast Boy was the last to speak. "I think we should take her in, sure we don't know her well, and sure this is somewhat reminiscent of the Terra thing, but that doesn't mean we should let something from the past stop us from doing something that could possibly help us in the future. I mean you dudes saw that look on her face; it really looks like she's got nowhere to go now. I say we'd be better off bringing her onto the team and having her stay here, than leaving her on the street and feeling guilty."
The others stared at Beast Boy for a few seconds before Robin spoke up. "Alright so that's 3 to 2 right? She stays?" The others nodded.
When they got back into the common room they saw Nix exactly where they'd left her, still staring absently at the glass of water in front of her.
"Nix, what are your fighting skills?" Robin asked.
"I'm um…I'm not much of a fighter…" She admitted sheepishly. "I didn't take karate or any type of fighting classes as a kid, I took dance. I'm best at dodging and self-defense…I mean I CAN fight if it's necessary, I know how to attack people, I'm just better at dodging."
Robin nodded. "Then you'll have extra training until you can fight as well as you can block."
Nix spun around and looked at the five titans standing behind her. "I'm sorry what?"
"What Robin is trying to say is you're on the team if you want to be. We'll give you a room to stay in and a communicator to contact us when you need it. You'll just need some extra training to learn how to fight." Cyborg said.
Nix sat there, mouth agape. She was just asked to join the teen titans. She was going to be a super hero. She was going to make something of herself…that was a first. "Th-thank you…what do I do about my job?"
After a quick trip to Jump City and a long explanation to her now ex-boss about why she could no longer work at the office, and then proof of her powers to said boss, Nix was now completely free to save the city whenever needed.
She made a quick trip back to her apartment to see if anything had survived the destruction that was caused. Surprisingly two things had; her dance bag and a twinkie, which Cyborg promptly ate.
It was decided that that night she would spend the night in Starfire's room while Robin and Cyborg cleaned out a spare room in the same hallway for her.
As she walked to Starfire's room she read the names on the doors that she passed. 'Beast Boy', 'Raven', 'Cyborg', 'Terra'….who was Terra? Nix couldn't help but be curious when she stumbled across this door. Terra had been mentioned while the six of them were in the car, but who was Terra? Was she a former titan? Nix hadn't moved into the city until about a year ago when the whole Brotherhood of Evil insanity was happening. She cautiously stepped towards the door, but before she could open it someone stopped her.
"I wouldn't go in there if I were you." She turned around to see Raven standing there.
"Oh, Raven you scared me. Whose room is this?" Nix asked gesturing towards Terra's room.
"That's Terra's room…she was a former teammate. She couldn't quite control her powers. Things didn't end well." Raven said. Her voice was complete monotone but in her eyes you could see she was really hurt.
Nix didn't know what to say, she looked at the door behind her, then back at Raven. "D-did she die?"
"Yes and no…she's a live now but she doesn't remember us…she doesn't want to remember us. She betrayed us, pretended to be our friend and then tried to annihilate us in the name of Slade. She broke Beast Boy's heart." Raven stopped talking when they heard Beast Boy moving around in his room.
Nix nodded, she sensed there was more to this than what Raven had said, but she didn't press any further.
The two stood there in silence for a few seconds before Starfire came into the hallway. "New friend Nix, are you ready for the party of slumber?" Nix smiled and nodded. "Oh friend Raven, do you wish to join us? The three of us could have the girl talk and get to know each other. It is most helpful when one knows their friends, like the time you and I switched bodies!" Nix looked at Raven with a look of shock then back at Starfire.
A small ghost of a smile appeared on Raven's face. "Sure Starfire, I think we have some pretty interesting stories to tell our newest recruit that would be better off heard from us than from the boys."
Raven smiled a little as Nix giggled uncontrollably. "Why are Cyborg and Beast Boy so obsessed with waffles?"
"It's kind of their thing." Raven said. "So uh…Starfire and I have told you about our powers and how things are around here…wanna tell us about yours?"
Nix stopped fell silent, no longer laughing, but she nodded and said, "Sure, but I warn you it's not a completely happy story. So I don't exactly know why I have these powers, I just sorta do. I think I first realized I had them when I was about six or seven. I was sitting in the living room watching TV and I really wanted some water, but my glass was on the table behind me and I was sitting in front of the TV. I didn't really feel like getting up to get the water and so from what I remember I was just sitting there staring at the water for a bit. My older brother Kade walked in the room and he was like 'Nix you're gonna have to go get the water, it's not going to just come to you.'
"Being the incredibly stubborn little girl I was I just continued to sit there and stare at the water. Then suddenly a little bubble of water floated out of the glass and over to me, and I swallowed it. I looked over at my brother and stuck my tongue out at him. Shocked at what just happened he told me to do that again. But I didn't know how I'd done it. So I continued to sit there and glare at the glass, when nothing happened I clenched my fist in frustration and the water began to boil.
"Finally Kade called my mother into the room to watch the strange phenomenon and she too was shocked. After my whole display my mother said I should never do that in front of anyone else besides them, actually I'd be better off never doing that again, or else I'd be experimented on. Course, when you have power over something, the temptation to use it sometimes gets too great. When some kids at school were picking on me one day I 'borrowed' some water from the pond near our school and dumped in on them, then I froze their feet in place. Mom had me transferred out of that school and I ended up being homeschooled by her. By the time I was 12, my only friends were my brother, my mother, and my dance bag. Dad had apparently died when I was really young so it was just the three of us in the house.
"When I was fifteen Kade and my mom died in a car accident. The car flipped off the side of this mountain and into a lake, if I'd been there they probably would have lived, but I wasn't there. I've been drifting around ever since; finally landing here in Jump City." Nix had tears in her eyes by the end of the story but a smile was on her face. "My powers take concentration, I'm allergic to strawberries, and I wish I'd never discovered these powers in the first place." She tried to laugh off her story by saying this when Raven and Starfire didn't respond.
Starfire hugged Nix, "Friend, I am so sorry for your loss…and your allergies of the strawberries. But that is no reason to wish away your powers. Without them you would not have met us."
"Thanks Starfire…but I still don't really like my powers…" Nix mumbled.
"It's not a question of whether you like your powers or not." Raven spoke. "You have them, and now you need to use them to help others. A lack of powers wouldn't have changed your fate. You may have stayed in school, but your family still would've died, and you still would've ended up in Jump City. Now you have to deal with where your life has taken you, and you have us to help you along the way."
Nix smiled at Raven and wiped the last of her tears off her face. "C-can you guys tell me more about what life is like here?"
In the morning Robin went to Starfire's room to get Nix so he could show her the room he and the others had prepared for her. Starfire and Raven were supposed to help, but neither of them had joined him, Cyborg, and Beast Boy who was up early for once. Upon opening the door he found all three girls passed out on the floor of Starfire's room. Starfire was cuddling Silkie, Raven was missing her cloak, and Nix was hugging Raven's cloak, which she must have taken in her sleep, like it was a baby blanket.
"Yo Robin did you find-oh." Cyborg said upon noticing the three sleeping girls.
"Aw they look so cute; it'd be such a shame if this moment was ruined by taking a picture of it and using it as blackmail later." Beast Boy said as he pulled out a camera and took a few pictures.
"Maybe we should give them a little more time to sleep…it looks like Nix is going to fit in just fine around here." Cyborg said as he dragged Beast Boy away.
"I think you're right Cyborg, I think you're right." Robin said as he moved to close the door. Before he did though, he walked into the room and picked up Nix's dance bag then placed it on her bed in her new room. It had been kept simple enough so that Nix could make any changes she wanted, but there were two things Robin was sure she wouldn't change. One was her new uniform that was laying on the bed a light blue top with sleeves that would go halfway down her arms, fading from blue to clear fabric as it went on, and matching shorts that did the same, making it look as if she was made completely of water. The other thing? A picture frame above her bed that showed a water fairy. Why? Nixie is German, German for water sprite. Her fate was sealed from the day she was born, and she probably didn't even realize it.
The end, I feel like my work on this was kind of half-assed. I could have made it a multi-chapter fic, but I didn't really want to bore anyone with details on my OC ^^; I hope you liked it, please R&R